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LÁSZLÓ Z. BITÓ ’60, 1934–2021
OPEN MIND, OPEN HEART, OPEN SOCIETY
LÁSZLÓ Z. BITÓ ’60 died November 14, 2021, at the age of 87. Born in Budapest on September 7, 1934, he and his family survived the Soviet siege and victory in that city in 1945. The Soviet occupation that followed lasted 45 years and left deep scars. In 1951, when Bitó was a teenager, he and his family were among those “internally deported” to the Hungarian countryside by the Stalinist regime. Later, during a period of forced labor in a coal mine, he wrote short stories and hid his notebooks deep underground. When Bitó and his fellow slave laborers disarmed their officers during the Hungarian Revolution of October 1956 and headed to Budapest to fight the occupying Russian forces, he had to leave his notebooks behind. He would come back to the vocation of writing later in life, eventually publishing more than 20 books, including 10 novels and seven volumes of essays.
In December 1956, after receiving asylum in the United States, Bitó and a group of approximately 300 Hungarian freedom fighters were invited to Bard College for a Winter Term of language study and orientation to the United States. At the end of that period, Bitó and his fellow Hungarians delivered a proclamation (which hangs on the wall in the lobby of Ludlow) expressing appreciation to the members of the Bard community “for the tremendous efforts exerted . . . to orient themselves to us Hungarian students.” They conferred the title of “Honorary Hungarian College Professor” on the Bard faculty “who thought that they could teach us the English language.” In January 2007, Bard held a three-day conference and a 50th reunion for the Hungarians who studied in Annandale in 1956.
Bitó won a full scholarship to Bard and stayed to earn a degree in biology in 1960. He went on to a doctorate at Columbia University in cell biology and biophysics. He pursued a research career first in London and later at Columbia, where he rose through the ranks to become professor of ocular physiology. He published more than 150 scientific articles, many reviews, and several scientific monographs. He held numerous patents, including one for Xalatan, the most widely used drug to treat glaucoma.
After the fall of communism in Hungary, Bitó returned and took up residence in Budapest, where he became politically active in defense of civil liberties, social justice, and freedom of the press. László’s home with his wife, Olivia Cariño, became a gathering place for writers, artists, and thinkers in postcommunist Hungary, and in recent years, a center of opposition against the illiberal regime of Viktor Orbán.
In 1994, at the age of 60, Bitó embarked on a new career. He published fiction (mostly novels of ideas) and essays that formed the basis of many volumes. One of his books is due to come out in English next year. Bitó had a deep passion for the arts, particularly music, and with Cariño generously supported the arts in Hungary and at Bard.
His first gift to Bard came in 1962, when he donated $15. Over the next 60 years Bitó contributed millions of dollars to the College and became one of the most generous alumni/ae in its history. He was an early supporter of Smolny College in Russia, and made substantial gifts to the Bard College Conservatory of Music, funding annual and endowed scholarships. He made possible the construction of the László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building, and supported the teaching of science at Bard and the building of new science facilities. Bitó and Cariño, have supported visiting professorships and many conferences and events. In 2021, they endowed an annual music series that will begin in 2022 with an exploration of the work of György Kurtág, as well as collegewide lectures on the origins and consequences of ideas and texts close to his own imagination and sympathies.
The couple’s displays of gratitude to Bard extended beyond exceptional monetary gifts to endless small kindnesses, as the many Bard staff, faculty, and alumni/ae who have paid them a visit while traveling through Budapest can attest. The first class of students in the Conservatory was filled with Hungarian students recruited single-handedly by Bitó and Cariño.
“László was a scientist, citizen, humanist, and writer who remained devoted to ideals of the liberal arts,” continued Botstein. “He was a true patriot, dedicated to a vision of a humane, tolerant, and progressive Hungarian nation. Bard College and I have lost a true and gracious friend, a fearless defender of the power of education, and a civic leader of uncommon courage, curiosity, imagination, and conscience who made a transformative contribution to medicine and science. László Bitó mirrored and realized the highest intellectual and civic aspirations of his alma mater.”
Bitó is survived by his beloved Olivia and two sons, John and Buck.
László Z. Bitó was awarded the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science in 2001 and received an honorary doctor of science degree from the College in 2007.
